I am associate professor in political theory in the Dept. of Political Science at the Univ. of Amsterdam, and an affiliated researcher in the Justice and Migration project at KU Leuven. Between 2009-2014 and 2015-2021, I worked at KU Leuven, Institute of Philosophy - funded by PhD and postdoctoral fellowships of the Research Foundation (FWO)-Flanders. In between, I taught at the LSE, Dept. of Government. In 2014, KU Leuven awarded me a PhD in philosophy (summa cum laude); I also hold degrees in philosophy (BA, MA), history (BA, MA), and political science (BA) from Leiden University.
A trained political theorist, analytic philosopher, and historian of political thought, my research specialisms are in early modern moral, legal, and political philosophy; contemporary theories of justice, rights, and property; and international legal and political theory (incl. the ethics of migration and war, and philosophy of human rights). I have lately been working on the place of slavery in early modern philosophy. Much of my research has a conceptual focus. My first monograph, entitled Hobbes on Justice, is in press with OUP. Together with Robin Douglass (KCL), I have edited the Cambridge Critical Guide to Hobbes’s On the Citizen. A founding member of the European Hobbes Society, I have convened the society’s first two biennial conferences (in 2016 and 2018).
Over the years, I have presented 40 different research papers at over 80 academic events across 25 countries. I have been a visiting student/researcher at the Universities of Yale, Oxford, Boston, Berkeley, Paris-1-Sorbonne/Panthéon, British Columbia, Pompeu Fabra, Stellenbosch, and London (Queen Mary and KCL). During the spring of '23 I held a NIAS Theme Group Fellowship.